1980 Porsche 911 Turbo R69 by Rinspeed

If you thought the 1980s were a period of excess then consider the people who bought this car. “I want a Porsche and I want a Ferrari.” Well here, have both, said Rinspeed. Actually, that’s not true… those dramatic side strakes that look like they were ripped right off a Testarossa were actually designed a few years before the big Ferrari ever went on sale.

This car started as a 1980 Porsche 911 (930) Turbo. That means it’s got a 296 horsepower, turbocharged 3.3-liter flat-six tucked out back. In 1983, the first owner sent it to Rinspeed in Switzerland to get the full Rinspeed 969 – or R69 – treatment. This meant the addition of pop-up headlights from the Porsche 944, those super-80s side strakes, and custom wheels. Basically, the task at hand was “box-ify it.” And that they did.

After a few years in storage, this example has recently been repainted in Rinspeed Pearl White and shows 69,000 original miles. It’s a straight-up Miami Vice ride. It’s thought that only 12 of these re-bodies were completed as they likely were not cheap. This one is selling at no reserve with no pre-sale estimate available. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

2007 TVR Sagaris

TVRs are wild – wild in design, appearance, and demeanor. The Sagaris might be the ultimate example of this. And it kind of makes sense that it would be, as it was the final new TVR model introduced before the company fizzled out under Russian ownership.

First shown at the 2004 Birmingham Motor Show, the Sagaris went on sale in 2005 and by 2006 the company was barely in existence so this model had but one year to make its mark. The car features a 4.0-liter straight-six that makes 406 horsepower. Sixty arrives in 3.7 seconds and the car tops out at 185 mph. Despite important EU regulations and recommendations, there is no ABS. No airbags. No traction control. It’s a monster. Oh, and in keeping with TVRs weird sense of design, the rear spoiler is clear and the dual rear exhausts point to the sides. Why not?

With fewer than 200 units produced, the car is quite rare. I remember seeing one for sale in Chicago a few years ago – but its unclear how that car could possibly be in this country legally. The example you see here has been owned by members of the TVR Club UK and is freshly serviced and ready to run. It should bring between $85,000-$100,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

We’ll pick up where we left off last time, with Silverstone Auctions’ May Sale. We didn’t get to feature anything from this half of their sale, but the top seller was $362,726 paid for this 1966 Iso Grifo GL 350. Everything else can be found here.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Now let’s backtrack to the beginning of the month and head to Auburn, Indiana, for RM Sotheby’s Spring Sale. The Terraplane Utility Coupe we featured failed to meet its reserve. As is customary at mid-western classic car auctions, a 2006 Ford GT was the top seller, bringing $297,000. Complete results can be found here.

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Next up, Brightwells and their dual Classic & Vintage/Modern Classic sale. The top sale was this 1969 Jaguar E-Type Series II Coupe for $88,666.

We’ll start with one from April: Worldwide Auctioneers in Houston, Texas. The one car we featured, the Ford Prodigy Prototype, sold for $2,200. The top sale was this 1965 Shelby GT350 that brought $363,000. Click here for full results.

Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers

Osenat held a sale on May 1st and there was a collection of Bugattis that crossed the block. This Bugatti, a 1925 Type 35B, sold for $625,084 – the most of any car at the sale.

Off to Monaco where there were three sales this year. The first was from Bonhams and the ex-Aryton Senna McLaren Formula 1 car was the top seller going for $5,009,296. The other ex-Senna F1 car, the Toleman TG184 brought $1,921,374. The two Ferraris we featured, the 625 TF and the F1/87, both failed to sell. We’ll award most-interesting to this 1955 Jaguar XK140 SE with a special one-off body by Michelotti.

Photo – Bonhams

It was essentially a barn find project. They had an estimate of around $50,000 on this car and it blew that out of the water, selling for charity at $425,447. Well sold! Click here for more results from this sale.

Our biggest dollar feature car was the Benetton B192 that brought $960,929 (the sales numbers from this sale are all estimates as I’m doing currency conversion a week late. Sorry. I went on vacation). The other F1 car from this sale, the Jordan 199, brought $284,447. The Ferrari Sergio would’ve been the biggest dollar car here, but it failed to sell. As did the Gilco. Another Ferrari, our previously-featured 328 Conciso, sold here for $128,811. Click here for more results.

Keeping with the Ferrari theme, Silverstone Auctions held an all-Ferrari sale the day before their May Sale. We featured a 550 Barchetta and it’s been listed as “Result to Follow” for a week now, so we’re calling it “maybe sold maybe not but we’ve got to ‘go to press,’ as it were.” Otherwise, the top seller was this 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona for $721,929. Check out complete results here.

Pininfarina was responsible for the styling and just 448 examples were produced between 2000 and 2001. They were quite pricey when new and it was eventually succeeded by the 575 Superamerica. These cars were so popular that Ferrari has continued to offer late-cycle convertibles of their big front-engined V-12 cars. And they are always rare and always ridiculously expensive.

This 3,000-mile example is powered by a 485 horsepower, 5.5-liter V-12. It’s one of 42 sold new in the U.K. and does have right-hand drive. This 199 mph convertible still shows that it is a sought-after car, nearly 20 years on, as it carries a pre-sale estimate of $450,000-$525,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Silverstone’s all-Ferrari lineup.

We pick up where we left off last time, with the other half of Silverstone Auctions’ Race Retro sale. This was the “Classic Car” half and this 1997 Aston Martin V8 Vantage V550 that was purchased new by Elton John was the top sale at $306,412.

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

The one-and-only Aspira supercar we previously-featured sold here for $95,851. Click here for full results.

On to Historics at Brooklands at Ascot Racecourse. The Railton we featured failed to sell, but the top sale was this 1992 Porsche 911 RS that brought $386,596. Click here for complete results.

Photo – Historics at Brooklands

Brightwells held a Classic & Vintage Cars sale on March 7th. The only car we featured, the Daimler DS420 Landaulette, sold for $13,852. The top sale was this 1975 Aston Martin V8 Series 3 for $76,190. Click here for more from Brightwells.

Photo – Brightwells

Onward to Amelia Island! We’ll start with Bonhams where two of our feature cars failed to sell: the 1899 Panhard and the Kurtis KK4000 Indy car. The overall top sale was this 2015 McLaren P1 for $1,710,000.

To finish off the first half of Amelia Island results, we have Gooding & Company. The cars with the largest estimates all failed to sell so the top seller ended up being this dusty fresh 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Long Nose Alloy for $2,530,000 (which is still some pretty big money).

Photo – Gooding & Company

Another Ferrari, the 212 Europa we featured, brought some big money too: $1,600,000. The Lion-Peugeot handily exceeded its estimate, selling for $220,000. And Frank Kurtis’ 500S sold for $112,750. Click here for everything else.

February means Retromobile, which has become one of the most important sale weekends of the year with the quality of cars on offer rivaling the annual Monterey weekend. First up from Paris is RM Sotheby’s. The only sub-$100,000 car we featured was the AGS Panhard that brought $39,452. The top sale was this 2017 Bugatti Chiron for $4,072,358. If people are willing to pay that much, maybe Bugatti should charge more to start with?

The other three cars we featured sold and their results are: FN Tourer for $35,471, Zedel for $53,917, and Pipe Cabriolet for $39,728. Complete results can be found here.

Artcurial held the third Retromobile sale in Paris and we featured even more cars from this sale than we did from Bonhams, so let’s get to it. Remarkably, yet another Bugatti was the top sale at this auction – Bugatti ruled the weekend. In this case, it was this 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante for $3,556,420.

Photo – Artcurial

Some of the big-dollar feature cars we had from this sale included the two Hispano-Suizas, with the J12 Sedan bringing $788,508 and the K6 Sedan $350,448. The other Vanvooren-bodied car we featured was the 1912 Panhard which sold for $365,050 (the wild Voisin brought the same amount).

A quick 12 hour flight from Paris is Los Angeles, where Mecum held their sale in February. The top seller was this 2006 Ford GT for $327,500.

Photo – Mecum

Less than half of the feature cars we had from this sale sold, with the Dodge Spectator and the Corvair Wagon both having been withdrawn from the sale (the third wagon, the Bel Air, sold for $13,200 and looks like it will be appearing at Motostalgia’s Amelia Island sale in a few weeks). The Olds 442 also failed to sell. But the Facel Vega was a star, bringing $214,500 – one of the largest amounts of the sale. Click here for the rest of the results.

And finally, the first of back-to-back sales from Silverstone Auctions. This was the “Race Retro” half and the top sale was $254,566 paid for this 1990 Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 Group A race car.

1959 Fairthorpe Electron

Offered by Silverstone Auctions | Coventry, U.K. | February 23, 2018

Photo – Silverstone Auctions

Fairthorpe Cars was one of a handful of British sports car builders that popped up in the 1950s. Founded by Donald Bennett, a high-ranking Air Force member, in 1954, Fairthorpe offered fiberglass kits to fit around a variety of different engines.

The Electron was introduced in 1956 and the body was based on the Microplas Mistral. The engine of choice, as this car sports, was a 1.1-liter Coventry Climax straight-four (which, during this car’s restoration, was bored out to 1.2-liters and 112 horsepower). Other running gear came from a Triumph TR3.

The Electron was technically available through 1965, but Fairthorpe sort of cut into its success by offering a cheaper version (with different styling) called the Electron Junior. Because of this, only 21 or 22 Electrons were ever built and it is thought that only seven remain. This car was rescued from pretty rough shape and lovingly restored in order to use it at track days. It’s a light, sprightly little car and it should sell for between $31,000-$37,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

A previously featured Humber finally found a new home for $81,250. The rest of our feature cars all sold with the Vivinus bringing $76,845, the Ader $117,221, and the Schaudel $192,834. Click here for the other sales.

We featured three beautiful American station wagons from this sale and their results are as follows: ’48 Buick – not sold, high bid of $26,000; ’53 Chrysler – sold, $48,000; ’69 Dodge Coronet – not sold, high bid of $13,000. Click here for the rest of the results.

1967 TVR Tina Prototype by Fissore

Few car companies have undergone more corporate ownership changes than TVR. In 1965 the company was purchased by Arthur Lilley and his son. It took a while for production to get going again on previous models but the demand really wasn’t that strong. So the new TVR commissioned Fissore to build a prototype two-door sports car. Fissore returned with this, the Tina (named for the daughter of Gerry Marshall, a British racing driver and associate of the TVR owners).

Unveiled at the 1966 Turin Auto Show, the Tina was shown as both coupe and convertible. They were based on the Hillman Imp, so the 55 horsepower 875cc straight-four is located in the rear. TVR lacked the funds to get this project off the ground and in 1967, once the Griffith had been put out the pasture, TVR went with the new Tuscan instead.

Tina Marshall, this car’s namesake, inherited it when her father passed in 2005. It was restored to the condition you see here. The Tina Convertible Prototype is still out there, but here’s your chance to acquire the coupe. It should bring between $40,000-$52,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.